I am a vegetarian, and am only not a vegan because the eggs I eat come
from my hens in my garden, and I don't have a cockerel, and also because I
personally know the organic farmer and his herd from whom we get our milk
and dairy products come form.

I am not religious, but do believe that the world is there, and at the
moment we only have one, so we should try to keep it as clean and safe as
possible. I believe that cruelty to animals is very wrong, and people should
be prosecuted for cruel behavior, just as they would as if the animals were
human.

But, I don't agree with some of the things said on your site.

For example, I too believe that the way animals are sometimes treated is
awful, and that just because of tradition that people should be allowed to
get away with what they do. But when you write "this photo leaves no
question in our minds about the depravity of the people who are involved in
this trade.", about cats in a market in Korea, I think you should consider
the peoples' lives, and their families' lives. I am not agreeing with the
idea that it's ok to leave animals in cages, dehydrated, and with dead
family members close by. I personally think the world would be better if
everyone was vegetarian. I think that you should think about the impact of
your words, and how it affects the reader into hating a certain group of
people.

The people in Australia, for example, with the dead cat tree.

Cats are not an indigenous species to Australia, and consequently doing
harm to the local eco systems by catching local wildlife. They have no
natural predators, and so their population numbers are rising. If the local
people want to get rid of the cats, they will do it by whatever means is
easiest, partially due to human laziness, and the hang the cats in the tree
because they know that animals don't like the sight or smell of their own
dead.

i think that your site is on it's way to helping, and may already have
swayed some people's ideas and opinions about animal cruelty, but some
things should be thought through more before being included.

Thank you for your time

Yours sincerely

Rebecca Walpole

Suffolk, England.

Reply from Frank and Mary

Dear Rebecca:

Thank you for your comments.

It obvious from your letter that your hens are companions, and not
commercial production units and the industry refers to them. The problem is
that the vast majority of egg production (over 95%) is done in a very cruel
manner. The same thing is true of milk production. We have been on several
small family run dairy farms and personally witnessed the cruelty on them
too.

We have corresponded with the people in Australia about the cat tree
people, and they have tried to get them to institute a
trap-spay-neuter-release program which has proven to be very effective in
controlling cat populations in other areas. They have refused and left the
impression that they are doing this just to be cruel and mean spirited.

If we saw any commercial operations that was truly compassionate, we
would report on it (them), but we have found none. This is why we have
written the things we have.